


Tony Stark- The Price Paid

by Skellyagogo



Category: Avengers, Iron Man - Fandom, Marvel
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Romance, Angst and Tragedy, F/M, Female reader insert, Gen, Near Death Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2020-12-17 17:48:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21058472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skellyagogo/pseuds/Skellyagogo





	1. Chapter 1

*Not gonna lie, between listening to the song Love Me Anyway by Pink and Chris Stapleton to create a mood while writing, I totally made myself cry, I've been experiencing a big mood since creating this.*

Tony survived Thanos but in the back of his mind, I don't think he ever dreamed he could have. Too many mistakes in his past that needed to be accounted for and if his death was the price then he was willing to pay it. I think that's why he made sure to make every second we had together count since solving the Time Travel problem and getting all those stupid Stones. He didn't want me to fight, he said I had to stay safe and survive, but I'd already done that the last five years with him. 

We were safe and 'survived' in that cabin by the lake. Between losing Peter, getting stuck in Space and the thought he'd never see me again, his PTSD was always running on high. We tried a slow life, the normal life, farmer's markets, and yoga, and long hikes in the woods, but Tony would always have the itch. The itchy scratch to create and build never left him. Domestic life like that just wasn't made for him, it wasn't in the cards or so he believed.

The battle was over, the smoke of the chaos was settling. Thanos and his forces were dusted and gone, all those we'd lost were back and alive only to see Tony fall. I flew across the battlefield in the Rescue Suit he'd built me, the last thing he tinkered with in secret. I screamed his name, the blood-curdling sound echoing across the destruction of the former Compound grounds. The damage done by the Stones was too extensive for me to play nurse, I'd have to use my curse. That amount of healing would put me in a Catch-22 situation, to save one life, I'd have to take another. I put everything I had left in me to keep him from dying knowing the price.

I could feel the others around me watching, the sniffling of tears and muffled grief. He wasn't lost yet, I refused to let him go. His pulse was weak but still there, I ejected from the suit resting my bare hands on his bicep and chest near his Arc reactor. The blinding white light cut through the dust and haze of the battlefield. Tony screamed out in agony as each cell of his body started to heal, life was just painful as death. Someone, maybe Stephen put an arm on my shoulder telling me it was too late but I just shrugged him off.

"I'm not letting you go, you're not gonna die, you hear me!" I cried out in anger. Healing Tony seemed to be sapping every bit of energy from me, maybe I was the price for him to live. Why were the others so willing to give up? Why were they just standing there?

"Y/n stop, the balance," Strange yelled out distressed. A price, there was always a price with my curse. Stephen almost wanted me bound by magic once he found out my secret years ago. I'd only ever used the curse I was born with three times in my entire life, it was a burden, an unholy gift.

"I don't care!" The shrill heart-wrenching scream that fled my lips made Stephen and the others flinch and recoil farther from me.

I could see the decay on Tony's hand and arm, the metal of his suit that had melded into his flesh down to his bones. The severe damage traveled up his neck and on half of his face slowly began fading away looking more like a second-degree burn. His head tilted to the side watching my every move. A tiny smile on his mouth as he spoke. He could feel it, the tinge of strength returning but it scared him. He didn't want anyone to have to die to save him, he refused to let that sit with the other three always on my conscience.

"It's okay Kitten," the faint whisper of his husky voice rang in my ears. He wanted to go, he was ready to leave this Earth behind to pay for his misdeeds of the past, but I was selfish. The only time I'd ever been selfish in my life and it was all to save him.

"No, it's not, I want more than five years Tony! You deserved more than five years of love and devotion damn it!" The tears spilling over and falling on what was left of his suit mingling with his blood.

"Y/n stop," Stephen Strange whispered, "this is how it was supposed to happen."

I let go of Tony and spun around advancing on Stephen, howling in rage. He didn't even move, he just stood there afraid to look me in the eye as I screamed out my frustrations, shoving him in his chest. All that time he knew, he knew Tony would die and he said nothing like a coward. So willing to sacrifice one man that he detested to save the rest of the Universe. The fire deep in my belly roaring to life in a bout of crazed passion. Tony was my whole world, my best friend, my reason to breathe and I'd give my last breath to make him understand he's worth it. Every kiss, every hug, every late-night conversation, he was worth it all, deserved it all and more.

"I don't give a shit about what the Universe told you! This is NOT how he goes out! He will not die, not here, not now! You hear me Strange. He'll go out a stubborn ass old man in his sleep and I'll follow shortly after. I've loved that man for years and I will do anything to save him, now shut the fuck up and go away!"

I turned back to see Tony lying against a crumbled chunk of the Compound. He had a smug smile on his face and a glint in his eyes. Even though the greying hair and wrinkles from age framed his face, he was still my youthful smug stubborn ass of a man. I could see the light of his reactor flickering. The sight of it losing power, the thought of losing him was too much to bear.

"Loved me for longer than the last five years huh?" He let out a wet cough watching me kneeling in front of him placing my hands back on him.

"Since the day you admitted you were Iron Man jackass," even now he was trying to make me laugh and smile, trying to make me of all people feel better.

"Five years was a good run Y/n. Marriage was an adventure," he rested his palm against my cheek trying to wipe away the tears.

"Marriage?" The gut-wrenching sob at that word stuck in Bruce's throat from somewhere behind me.

"Not good enough, Tony. I should have told you sooner, we could have had more time." The white light of my ability lighting the area around us.

He only winced this time as his body healed, the pressure of his hand on my face slowly increased as he gained strength, but his reactor still flickered. His breath and body flinched each time its power shuttered. I needed more, there was only so much I could do about that blasted reactor.

"Thor, you get some juice in that stupid ax and hit me with it." Thor owed me, Loki was alive and kicking because of me.

I could feel everyone's energy around me, their mournful eyes watching my inability to give up. It was as if they were giving up and ready to say goodbye. This felt worse than the actual battle, seeing him up close in that much discomfort. The grey storm clouds rolled in above, thunder crackling in the distance, the hair was standing up on my arms feeling the charge in the air. For once in his presence on Earth Thor was listening to me.

"Y/n, Kitten stop, it's okay," Tony struggled to speak, a tear slid down his face seeing me in agony. He was ready to sacrifice himself to save the rest of the world, but I wasn't willing to let my whole world be that sacrifice.

"You lost your ability to tell me what to do the second after you said I do Anthony," I forced out a chuckle, I didn't want to cry.

"Ooh you called me Anthony, I must really be in trouble," he coughed struggling to laugh.

He laid in that damned med lab hooked up to machines, the constant whirling of beeps and chimes grated on my last sane nerve. I'd already been a wreck seeing him disappear in that stupid ship, wracked with worry hoping someone anyone would find him and bring him back to me. I'd never felt truly whole or complete until that doofus of a man smiled when I poked fun of Fury all those years ago and I couldn't live without him.

I sat beside him in that room holding on tight to his hand for hours before I snapped and blurted out that I loved him, yelled that he couldn't leave me. He just smiled and turned his head to face me, flashing that annoying smug Stark grin of his. He said he always hoped it was love between us, he just thought there was plenty of time to say it to each other. After he recovered from the trauma his body suffered in space, we left the Compound, left the state altogether and hid away.

No one knew we married, not a single soul. They just assumed after the Snap and him getting stuck in Space that neither of us wanted to be alone. They assumed just like the rest of the survivors we were clinging onto something from our old lives. Assumed that I was just there as his best friend to keep an eye on him, but you know what they say about assume. It puts the ass in u & me. 

It was bizarre in the beginning, a slight awkwardness around the cabin, but eventually, like everything Tony did he went into it full force. His go big or go home attitude. There wasn't a need for silly dates he laughed. No need for restaurants or movie theaters, no sitting in coffee shops getting to know each other. We'd known each other since right after he was kidnapped and tortured in the Middle East. I was the one to give comfort when he didn't think he needed or deserved any. Every time the world was shit and crumbling around him, I was there and he was going to hold on tight and never let go.

Years of knowing each other, being a shoulder to lean on, working side by side on a daily basis. We skipped all that beginning relationship stage garbage and dove headfirst into the deep end. We shared the master bedroom since day one, by day two we'd taken the next step and slept together, something he definitely never tired of. By day three we had our first fight, one as old as time itself between couples, to bother with condoms or not. Of course, he was in favor of not because why the hell not, weren't kids apart of the normal life experience?

On day four he had one of the worst panic attacks he'd ever experienced when he couldn't find me in the house. I was reading by the lake when I heard his terrifying screams, the ramblings that Thanos had come back and taken me too. He was curled up in a ball on the kitchen floor muttering my name. He could hardly speak, his whole body shook in nervous energy. All I could do was wrap myself tight around him, run my fingers through his hair and spout off all the random, even the tiniest of things he'd done over the years that made me fall deeper in love with him. We were married by the lake on the fifth day. One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five days married to that glorious soul and I wasn't about to let him go.

Thor didn't have to say a word, I felt the power surge as it hit my back. The white-hot burning influence of the lightning as it coursed through my body amplifying my ability to heal in ways I'd never thought possible. It was working, the muscles, ligaments, and skin on Tony's body repairing itself, the light in his reactor illuminated with a strong glow. He squirmed beneath my touch, his eyes fluttered over mine. I felt like I was on fire like I was burning from the inside out. The downfall of my cursed ability, if it was me that died, then so be it.

Tony and Strange knew of the balance factor, it was the reason I only used that power in dire situations, Loki was the exception. I couldn't stand to see Thor suffering so much, he'd lost too much, even the will to live until I gave him back his brother. The drawback was I could never pick whom the life force came from, if I could I would have single-handedly wiped out all of Hydra after trying to take over SHIELD and the World. I knew something was wrong, my brain was screaming out, my body trying to go into Survival mode. My body wobbled and jolted, my eyelids felt so heavy I could hardly keep them open. I had to save Tony, no matter what, Tony Stark had to live.

"Y/n stop!" Both Tony and Strange called out anxiously seeing the effect this was having. 

"Thor! Enough!" Cried Clint, he was beside himself, he'd already lost Nat he couldn't lose either Tony or me too. Thor ended his hold on the lightning and let Stormbreaker clang to the ground.

The lightheaded, overly dizzy feeling slowly crept over me. It was like being on that ride The Gravitron at the carnival. The one where you stand with your back against the padded panels of a circular wall that are on wheels. Slowly the ride builds up speed until it tilts on its side. You feel a crushing pressure on your body as the padded panel shoots up towards the top of the ride. Between the force and pressure of the speed, the blood rushes to your head so quickly you have to close your eyes and breathe deeply to keep from passing out. I started to feel weak and nauseous, there was a scared look in his eyes as the color returned to his face.

"Y/n, please, let go." Tony whimpered worriedly, he tried to force me to look at him, but my eyes wanted to stay closed. Sleepy, I was so sleepy.

"Love... you," those gentle words hovered in the air as I lost consciousness.

There was no pain, no burns, no decaying flesh, no metal embedded in his skin and bones. He glanced down seeing a smoothness to his skin that he hadn't seen since he was a teenager. He could feel her hold on him falter, her breath was ragged and strained and in an instant, she fell. She collapsed with a heavy thud on the ground, a cloud of dust billowing around her in her wake. He sat up reaching out for her, trying to pull her into himself, but a massive flare of white light exploded around Y/n forcing everyone to shield their eyes. It was blinding and bright as if a hundred flares had been set off at the same time. When the light had finally faded they saw Y/n's crumpled body on the ground.

Tony crawled towards her, the panicked cry sticking in his throat as he searched for a pulse. His head shot towards Strange.

"It's faint but it's there." A sour sick feeling stabbed him in the gut, fear surging through him. A terrible thought of just who paid the price for his life.

T'Challa and Shuri pushed their way next to Strange and Tony, they all shared a knowing glance. Strange created a portal straight to Wakanda. T'Challa carried Y/n through the portal as Tony, Shuri, and Stephen followed close behind. Strange and Shuri working side by side while Tony never let go of her hand refusing to leave her.

That nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach over whose life was taken in exchange for his was confirmed after Shuri had run a diagnostic on Y/n. She blinked back tears and swallowed hard unsure of what to say or how to even phrase it properly without setting Tony off. All Strange could do was purse his lips and let out a deep sigh. He warned her, but just like Stark, Y/n was stubborn and never one to listen.

"Did you know?" Strange asked softly. Tony sat next to Y/n, his thumb stroking over her hand in delicate swirls.

"I had a suspicion a month ago, but I figured it was the strain of everything going on. I didn't want to get my hopes up now... I just want her to be okay." The internal struggle of what he'd lost before he even fully knew the possibility existed brought him to tears. Somehow fitting in the Cosmic joke of his life that his child is the one taken as the price to pay for his life.

"She's going to need surgery to..." Stephen hesitated to finish his sentence, but it didn't matter Tony just nodded his head in understanding.

"She can never know," he muttered softly. "She still has nightmares of the other three lives that were taken in payment. This... this would kill her, she'd never forgive herself."

"But Tony is that really wise? You know these things come to light eventually." The arched brow of Stephen's stern know-it-all expression stuck in Tony's mind.

"I know you think she's closed off and stubborn, but she's fragile. There are cracks in her that I'm afraid I could never repair. She's only that way to protect from the hurt of rejection. Because once people find out what she can do, they fear to be near her. She compares herself to the living embodiment of the Grim Reaper and you yourself make her feel that way Strange. I know what she's really like, who she really is and if she knew what saving me cost... she couldn't live with herself. It would shatter every part of her."

"Very well," Stephen busiest himself around the lab to ready for surgery.

"Shuri?" Tony looked up at the young genius in sadness. "Will she ever be able to... I mean she could again... later down the road... it's possible right?"

"There's nothing to say otherwise. She's relatively healthy, her body's just trying to cover." She was trying to comfort him, but even she didn't know if it was possible. This was beyond her expertise and knowledge, but the lost yet hopeful look that filled Tony's eyes made her say anything to ease his mind.

He never left her side, he was there every step of the way. She was asleep for ten days before she finally opened her eyes. She cried seeing him sitting next to her alive and then again knowing someone else paid the price for her selfishness. He never answered her whenever she asked who it was. Tony could only give a sad smile and shake his head.

"I honestly don't know, never got the chance to meet them," he responded with a forlorn look on his face, he couldn't look her in the eyes because she could read him like a book and he knew it.

"Them?" She broke down in tears. More than one life had been taken to save Tony.

She cried for days over what she'd done, even if she didn't know who her choice affected it still hurt her deeply. She took multiple lives, took them away from their family to keep her own intact. When the tears stopped, the nightmares began. Tony sought out the help of Wanda and Mantis to take those nightmares away and fade the guilt from the five lives she taken in her lifetime that haunted her. 

Slowly over time, she'd all but forgotten the pain, she could never fully forget the five lives that were lost because of her. The pain and suffering that once tormented her was nothing more than an occasional numbing sting that pricked at the sub-conscience of her mind.

Tony loved her more than himself, and he'd loved her no matter what until his last breath. They left Wakanda and went back to the little cabin by the lake. Sometimes their friends would visit, but more often than not it was just the two of them. Cherishing every second of every day they had with each other as if it could be their last. Tony could only hope that maybe someday the powers that be would finally see he'd paid enough in blood, sweat, and tears to the Universe. Hoped they could see the torment and anguish Y/n went through and how much she deserved happiness. He crossed his fingers in superstitious luck that someday, she'd get pregnant again, prayed to gods he didn't believe in that the cost they both paid was enough for a second chance.


	2. Tony Stark- The Price Paid

*Need to stress that Nebula is NOT dead in this story.*

"Mmm you're so soft and snuggly," Tony groaned into her neck.

He'd engulfed himself around her as they laid on their sides in bed, her back to his chest as he preferred. His arms wrapped around her, one over her chest with those fingers locked onto her shoulder, the other covering her stomach. He loved to swirl his fingers in that little spot on her stomach near her hip. That little divet spot where if his fingers stayed where they were it was an innocent touch, but a few inches lower could turn things into something dirty.

She had one of his thighs trapped between hers as he hung the other one atop her in a tangled mess. He loved mornings like this, nothing to do, nowhere to go and most importantly no clothes. The sunlight peeking in through the curtain casting a glow on her exposed skin, blankets kicked down at the end of the bed. The dewy morning light made the natural highlights in her hair pop and stand out. Tony nuzzled his head into her neck leaving gentle scruffy kisses.

"Soft?!" She snorted nudging him with her tush in defiance. "Are you calling me fat?"

"NO! No, no, no, wait you're trying to trap me in an answer aren't you?" The snarkiness was evident in his still sleepy voice.

"You've already been trapped by dumbass answers, and yet we're still married," she chuckled trying to pull the covers up over herself, but Tony wouldn't let her.

"You're preventing me from continuing my research Kitten." She could feel the laugh in his chest through her back.

"Research?! I'm a research project now?" She scoffed hiding the slightly amused laughter.

"Oh yes, a fascinating study too," he hummed trailing his fingers over her stomach. "Each ever-changing curve must be cataloged properly and handled with the utmost care."

"Still sounds like you're telling me I gained a few pounds jackass," but it only came out in a breathy moan at his touch.

She shook her head laughing, her hair cascading over his face making him lose his composure in the moment and his hold on her. He let go of her to swat the mop of hair out of his face giving her the opportunity to roll over and pin him down on his back. His reflexes weren't as quick as they used to be, somedays he felt every bit of his almost 55 years of age.

"What do you say to a road trip up North?" He questioned smirking up at her, his fingers lifting her hair away from her face. She never seemed to age, to him she was still that doe-eyed woman watching him from across his lab all those years ago.

Silver grey and muted brown tousled hair lit by the morning sun that she couldn't resist running her fingers through. Straddled above him she pondered his question. Her eyes taking in every facial feature and smiled softly when she noticed a few new wrinkles around his eyes. Her fingers sweeping over his face as soft as a feather's touch. She'd never tell him he was old, never mention the subtle changes she witnessed over the last two years. He was still her Tony, and the passage of time and age would never change that.

"I'd say you already have something planned no matter what I say," she giggled kissing his nose.

*******

The sterile brightness of the tiny room hurt my eyes. The worst part of sitting in that beige-colored room was the sting of the disinfectant smell that assaulted my nose with every breath. It was so strong it was on the verge of hurting my eyes, I don't think I've ever blinked as much as I was now in my whole life. Now I remembered why I avoided the Med Lab as much as possible, the stench. I knew the doctor was speaking to me, I could see her mouth moving and the concern in her eyes, but everything went silent after she read the results of the many tests she'd run.

I sat there staring at her for what felt like ages lost in oblivion. Her words lodged somewhere deep inside and my brain wasn't fully comprehending her words. My phone vibrating in my coat pocket for the umpteenth time since I'd been brought inside this room. I knew it was Tony without having to pull out my phone.

We'd come up to New York to visit friends and see the new Compound and all of Bruce's new work. The thought was that we'd spend some time in New York for Tony's birthday, doing it up Stark style for his 55th. He wanted to go BIG one last time before he officially felt too old to party like that anymore.

Sam, Bucky, Clint, Wanda, Pietro, Parker, and the others even Harley Keener who was interning for Stark Industries were all there to welcome us but I'd been off since we arrived. The whole flight it felt like I was seasick, my stomach churning up a storm. I kept passing it off as nerves being there again, walking over the same ground I almost lost Tony on. Flashes of that battle flickering past every time I closed my eyes. The sounds of Tony screaming in pain echoing in my head.

Tony found me throwing up in the bathroom suggesting I head down to the med lab to get checked out. He tried to follow me across the Compound but I assured him I'd be fine, pushing him to go see the new labs. I knew full and well that hospitals and hospital-like settings weren't his thing. It was an honest to goodness fear for him ever since he came back from almost dying in space.

He'd get into a cold clammy sweat the instant his foot was inside a hospital. All the color would drain from his face and he couldn't speak so I decided to save him from his own chivalry. He wanted to come with me I knew it. He'd hardly let me out of his sight after I finally woke up in Wakanda. He was my shadow and I loved him dearly for it, but even he had to accept his limits.

"You're... you're 100 percent sure?" I stammered at a loss.

"Unless our system has decided to play a cruel prank then yes I'm sure. You don't seem excited?" I knew her face from years ago but couldn't remember her name. She was a colleague of Helen Cho's.

"Oh no I am, it's just... I didn't think I could after..." My voice trailed off as I stared down at the floor. I could feel the nerves coursing through me.

One night a few months after we'd been home, I found Tony out on the back porch in the middle of the night huddled in a sobbing mess. He was trying so hard to keep the noise down not that it mattered, we lived in the middle of nowhere. I could hear him muttering about 'not fair' and 'she deserves better than this'. It broke my heart to see him like this, I'd assumed it was another panic episode. A nightmare that led him into a PTSD induced episode. It wasn't until I sat beside him and pulled him into me holding him tight that he told me everything, but a part of me had already known.

There were odd dreams while I was in the coma for 10 days. The faint laughter of children running around the yard being chased by a grinning Tony soaking them with the garden hose in the summertime. They were faceless, but I knew them. Blips of family dinners, overflowing bubbles flowing onto the floor at bathtime and bedtime rituals with favorite stuffed animals and stories. School plays, PTA meetings, and fundraisers. Trick or treating in matching costumes and Tony smirking while stealing candy out of their bags when they weren't looking. Early Christmas mornings full of laughter and so much noise from all the toys Tony couldn't say no to.

I put on a brave face for him and let him empty it all out. I wanted him to get all that bent up frustrations out, no more holding it all in and swallowing it down deep. He howled and blamed the Universe, blamed all manner of gods and belief systems, but it all wound up back on himself. The dozen or so things he thought of after the fight was over that he should have done instead. Modifications that he should have thought of because he was 'Tony Fucking Stark, after all, he should have known better'. He cried that he was being punished for the sins of his past. All the Stark weapons that destroyed lives, Sokovia and more but never once did he ever blame me though I knew he should have. I knew the price to pay for saving him and Karma that bitch came knocking to collect.

It was what we wanted, what we hoped for but it was still so overwhelming. I let out a laugh covering my mouth with my hand. Tony was going to be 55 years old and a dad. That thought was too funny to me as if all those old jokes I swore I'd never mention came rushing into my head at once. All I could do was try to hold back the laughter, but I failed miserably. Sure we had a massive age difference, but neither of us ever cared. All I could think of was Rhodey making jokes about Tony and his child using a walker at the same time.

"There isn't anything in your tests that leads me to believe you'll have anything other than a healthy pregnancy. I'm assuming this wasn't planned?" She stood up fumbling in the cupboards grabbing gloves and bottles readying the Ultrasound.

"Not exactly, I mean I'm not on anything, haven't been for years. We came to terms that if it happens it happens. Tony..." She turned to face me watching as my eyes darted around the floor. "Don't tell him, don't put anything in my file about this yet, you know how nosy he is. In fact F.R.I.D.A.Y. strike all of this from the record, period."

"Sure thing Mrs. Stark," F.R.I.D.A.Y. mused out loud. "Are you going to surprise him?"

"That would be the surprise of the Century now wouldn't it F.R.I.D.A.Y.?" I chuckled in a daze.

It felt strange laying on the exam table so exposed in the now darkened room. The jelly she squirted on my stomach was cold as ice sending goosebumps shivering over my whole body. The probe waved back and forth over my belly with firm pressure from her hand. For the longest time, the only thing that could be heard was the drumming of the blood rushing through me echoing in my own ears. The doctor kept her eyes on the tiny black and white screen in an intense search, but there it was. A strong rapid beat of a tiny heart broke the silence. Thump, thump, thumpity, thump, thump, thump.

"Well Y/n, by the looks of what I'm seeing you're roughly 17 weeks along. Heartbeat is fantastic, strong, see the tiny little fingers and toes." She rambled away still watching the screen, it held my attention as well though I admittedly couldn't make out all the things she could. "Oh," she chuckled. "Would you like to know what you're having?"

********

Like old times everyone had converged in the kitchen, the only ones missing were Bruce and Tony, just like the good old days. The conversation ceased as they watched Y/n walk towards the fridge in a daze. She wore a giant smile and a glint in her eyes that didn't escape any of them. Muffled laughter erupted when she almost missed the chair as she sat down, but Parker was at the ready web-slinging the chair directly beneath her. Wanda tilted her head grinning picking up on Y/n's emotions immediately.

"Someone's exceptionally happy for just coming back from medical." Wanda mused smiling.

"Uh, oh yeah, I guess." Y/n sighed playing with her water bottle. A myriad of thoughts rushing around in her head.

"Everything okay Doll?" Bucky reached out across the table opening her bottle for her.

"It's good, I'm good, why wouldn't I be good?" She muttered letting out an odd high pitched laugh, her cheeks flushed a rosy pink.

"Are you on some good meds or something?" Sam chuckled earning a smack on the back from Buck.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y. privacy mode," Harley quipped casually from where he sat on the kitchen island. Y/n just laughed again, Harley was a lot more like Tony than anyone had ever thought he'd turn out to be. He'd been tinkering with a new suit design, even had a name picked out, The Iron Lad.

"I have some news and it's gonna make for an interesting birthday for Tony. I know he wanted to go big but this... this is as big as it's gonna get I think. I need your help, you all in?"

********

A long table was set up outside in a shady spot behind the living quarters building. The late May weather was warm signaling a good growing season on the horizon. All of Tony's favorites were scattered over the table, even cheeseburgers from his favorite spot in NYC and a few bottles of his go-to Scotch. Conversations flowed, jokes and laughter filled the early evening air. The guys seemed to take the secret news as some new drinking game. Every time there was a baby reference made and Tony didn't notice they took a drink. Most were already tipsy as Parker and Harley seemed determined to get them drunk before the night was over by making said references on purpose.

Some faces we hadn't seen in years made the long last-minute journey to celebrate. Scott, Cassie, Hope and even Hank Pym, though Hank seemed more excited to see me rather than Tony. Happy Hogan was present with his new wife May. That relationship was still taking Parker some getting used to. He still couldn't bring himself to call him 'Dad'. T'Challa and Shuri were in DC and put a halt to what they were doing and flew up after receiving my call.

Though they couldn't make it transmissions were sent to Carol, Nebula, Quill and his team. I wasn't sure who was happier Nebula or Groot at the news of the little one. My mind was already made up because of the care she'd given Tony in space that Nebula was a God-parent. There were no ifs, ands or buts about it, Nebula was a member of this crazy family. I did, however, have to explain the concept and the definition behind that role before she finally accepted the honor. She was flashing a full-blown smile before the transmission ended.

Tony was all smiles and relaxed, I could see the contented glimmer on his face. The wrinkle lines from so many years of laughter framed his eyes. He leaned back, legs stretched out in front of him crossed at the ankle. One arm rested over the back of the chair with a cigar in the other puffing away in deep conversation over the hydroponic garden he planned building when we got home because he was tired of overpaying for organic blueberries at the farmers market. Domestic Tony was still humorous to see, even for me.

"I want to thank everyone for coming to this last-minute get together for Tony's birthday." I stood up from my seat beside Tony smiling, his eyes arched following me curiously. "We've been a family for so long that it only seemed right sharing this moment with all of you."

Harley stood beside me grinning setting a cake in front of Tony. Tony raised an eye at the cache of candles lit all over the cake. Thoughts of where to find the nearest fire extinguisher must have crossed his mind, maybe Dum-E was already on his way. It wasn't anything spectacular a quasi simple three-tiered birthday cake in vanilla buttercream frosting with a baby Iron Man on the top made out of modeling chocolate. He didn't even bat an eye at the baby blue icing piped around the cake in swirls made to look like mini versions of his first Arc reactor.

"It's been a long road between him and me." Rolling my eyes I smiled down at him peering into those mischievous eyes hidden behind darkened sunglasses. "I wouldn't trade it for anything, not even a younger version of himself." The sly remark had everyone laughing even Tony himself. Age had never bothered him until this last year after being mistaken for my Grandfather while out shopping. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., the song please."

Tony tilted his head in confusion gazing up at me. He quirked an eye hearing John Lennon's Beautiful Boy wafting over the speaker system. I waited not so patiently for it to dawn on Tony, but he only looked more confused as he glanced around at all his friends and family and their smiling faces.

By the third chorus and no reaction from him, I couldn't take it any longer and reached down taking his hand resting his palm over my stomach. He took his glasses off tossing them hastily on the table, not even noticing they landed in the cake and now covered in frosting. Blinking rapidly, his face was stone as he stared up at me. He stood up so quickly his chair tumbled backward behind him.

I saw it click in his eyes, the slight tremble on the edge of his mouth as the smile spread across his lips. His eyes flickering past me and to the cake landing on the little baby Iron Man. The lines scrunched on his forehead every time he opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't think of what to say. He begged and pleaded while I was in that coma in Wakanda for this day.

He still prayed to things he didn't even believe in after we went home that this day would come, that the Universe could see that we deserved it. That we had sacrificed everything and more and just wanted something normal, a semi-quiet life. He wanted a chance to prove he could be better than Howard. Give his kids all the attention and affection he rarely received from Howard.

He didn't know it, but I could hear him every morning. Sending out that little prayer in his own way when I left the bedroom to grab our coffees. He'd lay in bed with his eyes closed, hands clasped over his chest pleading for the opportunity to do something right in his life.

'Y/n deserves this, just please give me the chance to give it to her. There isn't anything I wouldn't do to ensure their happiness and health, just please, please let her have a second chance.'

"Y-you're sure?" He studdered unable to stop smiling, he couldn't take his eyes off mine.

"100% sure, and completely healthy. Little fingers and toes, strong heartbeat, pretty sure he has your attitude too. He looked like he was flipping off the Doc in the Ultrasound." I smirked seeing the sheer elation awash in his face.

"Holy shit!" He turned around in circles laughing ecstatically. His fists raised high towards the sky shaking. "THANK YOU!" He screamed though to whom he didn't know. "He, you said he!"

He turned back cupping my face in his hands. There was so much emotion in that simple kiss. The overwhelming passion and wonder of it all. He kept grinning widely, a few stray tears of joy fled his eyes as he knelt down in front of me. Fingers spread wide over my stomach as he leaned his ear against me. He closed his eyes trying so hard to focus on the sounds within.

"I know we should talk about this but I-I was thinking of Nathaniel Romanoff Stark or Roman Nathaniel Stark." Mentioning her name still hurt after all this time, but besides Tony, she'd been my best friend. She was the one I turned to when I had no one else. "Nat always joked her name would work for either gender whenever I spoke with her about my little crush on you."

"Either way his initials will sound like a secretive organization," Tony snickered glancing up at me. "I know this is early kid," his lips brushed up against my stomach speaking with his unborn son. "I'm gonna give you the damned world and more. I'll be there every day annoying the hell outta you and your mother."

********

It wasn't an easy birth by any means. No hospitals for Tony meant a home birth but plans never go as they should, the little one arriving early on Halloween night. Our doula was out of town and EMTs were still too far away. Tony paced on the phone with Bruce watching me nervously as I laid on the couch. Bruce was trying his best to talk Tony down from his hysteria and talk him through what he needed to do.

All the things he'd learned in birthing classes and read in books suddenly devoid of his brain. Studdering and tripping over himself in a panic mumbling to Bruce over speakerphone. Tony kept sputtering out the breathing technics himself and did his best to keep me calm, but he was an utter wreck. Bruce had sent help more so for Tony than me. Clint and Wanda were flying back from a mission near us and Bruce diverted them here.

Tony never relaxed, not even hearing the Quinn landing in the yard, or Clint's pep talk that everything would be alright. Wanda took it upon herself to ease his mind with a little help from her powers, but even that only worked to a certain point. Clint had been through home births a few times with Laura so it was second nature to him.

"Don't look at her like that Barton," Tony quipped smiling at me while holding onto my hand. He was still freaking out as he dabbed the sweat off my forehead.

"I have to look to see what I'm doing Stark," he chuckled. The stupid little bit of jealously only made me laugh.

Five hours later, Roman's cries echoed through the house. Rosy pink and clenched little fists with a little tuft of black hair. Eight pounds, fourteen ounces and twenty-one inches of Stark attitude crying until he was in my arms just like his dad, a joke Tony didn't find funny yet. Diapered and bundled in a Black Sabbath blanket courtesy of Tony because 'what child of mine wouldn't like Sabbath' he laughed the day he brought it home.

"You deserve this you know," I smiled up at Tony resting the palm of my free hand on his cheek. He wore a happily confused look in his eyes. "I heard you every morning, what you asked for, but you deserved a second chance too."

He wasn't sure what to say, but the expression on his face was enough. Happy and healthy and together was enough.


End file.
